Why were so many Tri-City homes lost to fire this summer? Agencies have some answers

When the Smiths bought their 47th Avenue home, they didn’t think much about the threat of a wildfire.

The home seemed like a great space after house hunting for three months.

“I was heading to my grandson’s birthday party, and I saw the sign,” Candie Smith remembered. When she told her husband about it, he didn’t leave it until he had made an offer.

Built into the steep hillside on the south edge of Kennewick, the roof facing the hill was close enough to the ground that you could step up onto it.

And the $250,000 home’s custom garden was stocked with native species growing close to the roof.

When Aug. 11’s destructive range fire raced toward the house, all those dry plants made it a perfect target.

In the end, the Smiths weren’t the only ones to lose their home. Four others were also consumed that day and three more damaged.

As Tri-City fire and emergency agencies regroup after the 5,000-acre blaze, they are taking a hard look at why so many homes were lost and what could have done better — before and during the crisis.

“I believe it was a real eye opener to people,” Kennewick Fire Chief Vince Beasley said. “I’ve committed to ... the community that we’re going to target those hazard areas and get our prevention team involved and be more proactive in those areas.”

The Perfect Storm

Candie Smith had just left to get an oil change that Saturday afternoon, leaving three grandchildren, three dogs and her husband, Stephen, at the house.

That’s when her son, Tyler Miller, called about the fire blowing up behind her house.

Miller is a volunteer firefighter Benton County Fire District 1 and was coming back to Kennewick after a nine-day deployment fighting fires near Davenport and in the Columbia River Gorge.

When Miller realized the fire that started in the median of Interstate 82 was headed straight for his mother and stepfather’s house, he called his mom and raced there.

As he pulled up, he saw smoke on the ridge. He got the kids to safety and found his stepfather trying to put water on the back lawn.

“On a normal fire, that might work, but at this time, the flames were coming down that hill, and I knew that no water was going to stop catching the house on fire,” he said. “So I told him, drop whatever you’re doing because we really only have five minutes.”

They escaped but lost a dog and a rabbit to the blaze. Stephen also went to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

A warm winter combined with a cool spring left plenty of vegetation to dry out by late June. When the winds kicked up, it created a perfect storm, Beasley said.

He said firefighters also were struggling to stay ahead of the blaze as it was being fanned by 20 to 25 mph gusts.

Many homes had dry vegetation too close, as well as plants like arborvitae that can carry the fire straight into an attic.

Once it gets into the attic, it’s an all-day fight, Beasley said. In the chaos of a fire like this one, the firefighters simply don’t have time to spend the day fighting each home fire.

While the fire appeared to move in mysterious ways, it actually followed the path where there was fuel, stopping at short grasses and green lawns.

Beasley said the fire department needs to do more to reach residents, especially the ones living in places most at risk of wildfires — whether that’s the hills of south Kennewick and Richland or the edge of Zintel Canyon in the heart of Kennewick.

“I believe that with being prepared we can prevent many things. That’s why we have a prevention program,” he said. “Now we’re going to refocus that program to include not just businesses, but residential as well, and make that a priority as well.”

They’ve already started meeting with homeowner associations in the Canyon Lakes and Inspiration Estates neighborhoods. And the city posting more information and links online.

It’s a lesson the Smiths are taking to heart as they plan to rebuild. Their neighbor’s home sits farther up the slope, but was saved because their driveway and a small retaining wall served as barriers.

“I guess there was a fire here 10 or 15 years ago, and he was just building here just after that, so he had a good idea of what to do,” said Smith.

What’s next

The 11 agencies that battled the blaze also plan to study their response to the fire.

Officials have praised how fire, police and dispatchers responded, but every emergency gives agencies a chance to learn and improve, said both Beasley and Richland police Capt. Mike Cobb.

One lesson seems clear. The public wanted more and better communication during the emergency.

Looky-loos flooded the neighborhoods to get a closer look at the raging fire even as fire trucks tried to move around them. And police officers were using public address systems from patrol cars to warn people to evacuate.

One of the systems that might help fill the gap is CODE RED.

Benton County Emergency Services began using the emergency notification system a couple of years ago. For the most part, the Florida-based company that manages it collects phone numbers from the white pages and then makes calls to give instructions and information.

What the company can’t do is call people’s cellphone numbers unless they have permission. If a person wants to get a cellphone message, they must sign up at Benton County Emergency Service’s website, www.bces.wa.gov.

The notification system called 2,903 numbers, and more than two-thirds of those calls went unanswered, said Deanna Davis, the Benton County Emergency Management manager. And only 72 people in the area signed up for text message alerts.

Davis has sent out mailers, advertised on Facebook and wants to talk to anyone interested in knowing more. She can be reached at 509-628-2600.

“It doesn’t cost anything and the data remains private,” Davis said. “We can’t alert you if we can’t reach you.”

For the Smiths, they’re just glad their losses weren’t more serious. They are currently staying at a hotel, and were overwhelmed by the help they received from their neighbors.

“We’re looking forward. We have hope in our hearts,” she said.

This story was originally published September 1, 2018 at 2:34 PM.